Speaking at the recent Dodgers All-Access event in Los Angeles, Lakers legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson said his time with the 1992 U.S. Olympic “Dream Team” was “the greatest basketball I’ve ever been involved in” outside of his tenure with the Lakers.
Johnson explained that head coach Chuck Daly set the tone on the first day of training camp by naming Michael Jordan the team captain. According to Johnson, Jordan immediately declined and insisted that Johnson and Larry Bird share the role, a gesture that led every player to “leave their egos at the door.”
The Hall of Fame point guard described the unique challenge of running fast breaks alongside all-time greats rather than his usual Lakers teammates. “I’ve got Michael Jordan on my right and Larry Bird on my left—Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Karl Malone, Clyde Drexler, Chris Mullin, John Stockton—and we had the college kid Christian Laettner,” Johnson recalled, joking that the Duke forward was told to “sit on the bench, young fella.”
Johnson said it was on his “bucket list” to set up Bird and Jordan for baskets. In the team’s first exhibition game in Portland, he fired a no-look pass to Bird for a three-pointer and later tossed a behind-the-back feed to a soaring Jordan. The U.S. squad went on to win games in Barcelona by an average of 42 points and secured the gold medal both Johnson and Bird lacked.
During the Olympics, Johnson remembered, Jordan approached him and Bird in the dining hall and said, “I just want you two old guys to know there’s a new sheriff in town,” a nod to the Chicago Bulls’ rise as Johnson and Bird moved toward retirement.
The Lakers icon also shared that his favorite moment of Kobe Bryant’s career was Bryant’s 60-point performance in his final NBA game in 2016.
Source: Lakers Nation
